


Fate, Chance, And Happenstance

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Lydia Martin, Alpha Stiles Stilinski, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe- Werewolves are still a thing, Baby Animals, Care of Magical Creatures, Dragons, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Magical Stiles Stilinski, Mates, Omega Derek, Omega Derek Hale, Protective Stiles, sterekmates, sterekweek2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 22:42:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12542864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: "So... you're basically the real life, werewolf version of Newt Scamander?"Derek gave a fond roll of his eyes, lips quirking up into a grin"If that helps you,"Or: Derek's family takes care of baby magical creatures, Stiles gets stranded in their town, and there's a dragon-napper on the loose





	Fate, Chance, And Happenstance

**Author's Note:**

> Weirdly enough, this came from a dream I had- the first part anyway, right up until after Derek offers to give them a ride, the rest... I just sorta went along with it after that, hope you like the "Mates" theme of Sterek Week!

"I can't believe this trip turned into such a bust,"

"Don't look at it as a bust, look at as a weekend away from the city,"

The way Lydia was looking at him told Stiles EXACTLY what she thought of that idea- and it was nothing good

Normally Stiles wasn't exactly an optimistic person but he actually liked being away from the city, it was nice

Lydia, however, clearly disagreed

"Stiles, I know this doesn't make sense to you, given the self-employed thing, but I took off _three days_ of work to come out here and I expected to find a mate,"

"I don't know what to tell you, I mean I didn't find anyone either, but you know, if I was an Omega, I'd TOTALLY mate with you,"

"Thanks," Lydia muttered dryly, as if the very idea offended her

Wich... _hey_

"I mean not that Alphas _have_ to mate with Omegas, all combinations are fine, I mean just look at Kira and Scott- two betas, who knew?"

"You aren't helping," Lydia sighed again, glancing out the window

Stiles huffed, rolling his eyes as he turned back to the pouches of chocolate he was making

It was partly to advertise his business but mostly just to fill some time

"Well I'm _trying_ to help," he grumbled back

He had to admit though, as much as he had liked being away from the city for a wile and having what was essentially a vacation out in the country, he was still dissappointed that he hadn't found his mate

There had been some high hopes that, since he hadn't found his mate in Beacon Hills, it had just seemed kind of a given that they were somewhere else, and he had really hoped Lily Valley would be the key

There was a reason that the city sponsored annual mating trips out to the valley after all, people in Beacon Hills had some weird history of finding their mates in Lily Valley, especially Alphas finding Omegas (respectively)

Just as Beacon Hills had a good history of birthing Alphas, Lily Valley had a good history with birthing Omegas, not to say that there were never cases of the opposite- and ofcourse betas sprinkled in between- but statistically they seemed to lean to one side

There was even an old joke that Beacon Hills and Lily Valley had made a deal with the gods centuries ago, Stiles kind of believed it if he was being honest

"We'll find our mates, don't worry," he promised, finishing his last chocolate pouch and setting it in the box with a proud feeling of accomplishment

"It isn't THAT I'm worried about, the more time I take away from work the more I'm going to have to fight to get on the special task teams, I try to keep a perfect record of attendance but the more I have to go away for these trips the more damage I do to that record,"

"So.... you're not upset about not finding a mate, you're upset about not being at work for a few days?"

Lydia raised an eyebrow, staring at him as if he had just told her 2 + 2 = 4

"Did I not make that clear before.....?"

"No ... no, you did, you did," he muttered back, going back to getting the pouches organized, wich he didn't really NEED to do but, well, it was a time killer atleast

"Stiles....?" Lydia asked slowly, glancing up at the clock on the wall behind him

"Hm?"

"What time does the train leave?"

"Three o'clock,"

"Stiles.... it's 3:15...."

"What? No it isn't, Scott said he'd call at 2:50 to remind us,"

"Well the clock on the wall says it's BEEN three o'clock for fifteen minutes!"

With annoyed sigh, Stiles took the watch out of his pocket and flipped it open, the color draining from his face as he stared at the watch face

"....Oh Scotty...."

"STILES!" she shreiked, wasting no time in flinging herself out of the diner booth and hurrying to get her duffle bag over her should

"It isn't my fault! Scott was supposed to call!"

"You should have had a backup plan!" she snapped in return as the witch hurried to get out of the booth along with her, tossing his backpack over one shoulder and lifting up his box of chocolate pouches, rushing to follow her out of the diner

They were just lucky that the diner wasn't that far away from the train station, close enough to run... he hoped

But he wasn't nearly as positive that they were close enough to get there before the train took off...

"Don't you have a broom we could fly on!?" Lydia shouted as they rushed through the massive garden just outside of the diner

"Does this backpack LOOK broom sized?"

"Well can't you shrink one!?"

"In theory but I wasn't counting on having to go by air travel!" he huffed back in irritation

Lydia just groaned loudly and tried to speed up, but neither of them were exactly gifted with speed, a witch and a banshee were practically at human levels when it came to physical capabilities

They were almost there

_Almost there_

Maybe the train would be late, maybe it got stalled for some reason and they would still be able to make it, he hoped so...

Otherwise Lydia would never let him live this down, and that was the LAST thing he needed

The train station was just up ahead, he could see the little indoor waiting department, the train was still there, they just had to-

"'It's leaving!!!"

_Hell_

"We can still make it, we can still make it!" he shouted

They just touched down on the entry to station when the train rolled out....

"No no no!" Lydia screamed in irritation, suddenly grabbing Stiles by the arm and yanking him in the direction of the train

"Come on, maybe we can catch it!"

"Lydia that'll never work!" Stiles insisted loudly, but she wasn't about to listen, she just ran as fast as she could, dragging Stiles off behind her and running to catch up with the train

Outside of the station was nothing but green

Hills, mountains, and vallies as far as the eye could see- huh, so that's why they called it Lily Valley- with lots of forests and woods in between, and the only thing interrupting the scenery was the train going down the tracks through the vallies

He knew within reason that they wouldn't catch up, but he wasn't about to spoil Lydia's idea until she came to that conclusion on her own

It took maybe five minutes of running, until Stiles was about to pass out from loss of breath, for her to finally stop, screaming in aggrivation and letting go of him to grab frustratedly at her hair

"How are we going to get home!? I have to be home by tommorrow morning, I'm supposed to leave for a trip!"

"Sorry," Stiles huffed out, practically collapsing to the ground and dipping his head back in the vain hopes of getting some of the sweat to pour off off his face

"He... he should've... called...."

He knew that wasn't helping, but it was really all he had at this point

She groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose

"We'll just... we'll just have to.... wait for the... the next train..." he mumbled back

The next train, wich wouldn't be there until tommorrow afternoon, long after Lydia was supposed to be on a plane to wherever her trip was going to be....

"I can't WAIT for the next train, I need to be home TODAY," she insisted

"I could take you,"

The sudden sound of another voice jerked both of the Alphas out of their argument, turning to stare in the direction of the voice

The man standing at the top of the hill was a little older than both of them, but not by much, his face was soft and covered in a moderate layer of facial hair, his hair dark as night and his eyes a shimmering green with flecks of gold and copper

He was kind of beautifull actually

"And how exactly would you do that?" Lydia asked skeptically

To be honest Stiles kinda wanted to tell her not to be so brash with the pretty dude but he resisted the urge, Lydia was brash with everyone, it was just a charector trait at this point

"I have a car in the garage on the other end of the woods, I can take you through the woods behind my house and then drive you to Beacon Hills, or .. to a bus stop or something, whatever you need,"

"That's so nice, are you going that way?" Stiles asked curiously

"No, just... offering," the stranger shrugged back

"Well that sure is sweet, we'll take you up on th- OW!!"

Stiles wipped his head around, glaring with irritation at Lydia as she slowly removed her foot from where she had stomped on top of his

And, because it was Lydia, she was _wearing _heels__

He was probably missing a toe by now

"Give us a minute," she said with a tight smile, grabbing Stiles by the hand and dragging him a few feet further away

"Stiles, don't you see anything wrong with this picture?"

"Umm... he's too pretty to be wandering around out here alone?"

"No," she huffed with a roll of her eyes

"Stiles.... stranger danger?"

"Oh come on Lyds! He's just a harmless little Omega, he's got that _aura_ ya' know?"

"Stiles, you're stereotyping, an Omega can lift an axe just as well as anyone," she insisted with a small frown

"Lydia he's trying to help, I mean I'm usually the FIRST person to have trust issues but don't you think this is just a little out of hand?"

"A complete stranger is offering to drive us six hours out of his way for no apparent reason? Yeah, sure, that's out of hand," she mocked with a snort

"Lydia, TRUST me, I am getting NOTHING but good vibes from this dude!"

"You just want to get in his pants,"

"Untrue, but even if it were, do you have a better idea? You want to get home right? It's either we go with Cutie McHot-Pants, or we wait until the train for tommorrow,"

 _"Cutie McHot-Pants?"_ she hissed back under her breath

He could see the reluctance practically burrowing it's way under her skin like a worm, but she knew that there wasn't any other choice

With a loud, long sigh, her shoulders sagged and she forced herself to turn back towards the patiently waiting Omega across from them

"We need to go back to our hotel and make a phone call," she said briskly

Stiles could tell just by her tone that Scott was about to get chewed out so badly he'd be lucky to have all of his limbs by the time she was done with him

 

~+~

 

"Scott? Is everything ok?"

Scott pulled away from his girlfreind for a moment, leaning back in his seat on the train and scrunching up his face

"I .. feel like we're forgetting about something..."

"You think we left a bag at the train station or something?" Kira asked

"No, I counted before we got on the train... huh.... I don't know what it is,"

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, you'll think of it eventually," she promised with a compassionate smile

Well, she was probably right... so he gave a small shrug, leaning in to kiss her again

 

~+~

 

"I'm going to skin him alive when I see him next," Lydia snarled

A lesson that Stiles had learned long, long ago, but that Scott clearly hadn't quite grasped yet

"Yeah I know, you'll turn him into a pelt to hang from your wall,"

"Screw that, I'll wear him like a coat,"

"Boy I'd hate to get on your bad side," the Omega- who's name they had learned was Derek- commented light-heartedly

"Yes, you definitely would, so make sure that you don't," she said brashly

Stiles watched with a small frown as Derek's face deflated, feeling a wave of sadness wash over him

It wasn't Derek's fault that he had just so happened to get on Lydia's nerves....

And he had just been trying to _help_

"SO Derek, you said you live in the woods? Do you like it out there? Have you lived there long? What do you do?"

The Omega- who Stiles had come to realize was most likely a werewolf based on behavior and just the general vibes he gave off- turned his attention towards the witch, a slight smile playing at his expression

"Um... yes, a wile, and I'm a seamstress... sort of, I mostly make feminine clothing for men, dresses, skirts, that sort of thing... but I make other clothes too,"

"Really? That's so cool!! I bet you get alot of business huh?"

"Enough," he replied with a slight smile

"We're right here, you don't have to come in with us if you'd prefer to just wait here instead," Lydia said suddenly once they got closer to the hotel, barely a few yards away now

Derek stopped short, a sad look falling against his face again as he stepped back

"Right, I'll just... wait here," he said, clearing his throat

Stiles glared in frustration at Lydia, arms crossed over his chest, but for Derek's sake he didn't say anything right that moment, just giving the wolf a polite wave as he followed Lydia down the hill towards the hotel

 _"Seriously?"_ he huffed the second they were out of earshot

"I'm telling you Stiles, something isn't right, what person offers to drive strangers six hours away for absolutely no reason?"

"I don't know, maybe he's just freindly!"

Lydia paused, taking the witch by the shoulder and nodding up towards the hill where Derek was waiting (And staring.... and looking a little grumpy)

"Does that look like the face of a freindly person to you?"

Stiles just shrugged, following Lydia into the hotel lobby and grinning excitedly when he saw a familiar face waiting for them

"Parrish!!" Lydia screamed excitedly, rushing towards the deputy across from them and giving him a tight hug

"What are you doing here!?"

"Well it's a funny story, I was here consulting on a case with the local deputies and was waiting at the red eye train station to get my ticket for tonight when Scott called and said you were stuck here, so I bought two tickets instead,"

"Oh thank God," Lydia breathed

Two tickets.....

Two tickets....

Stiles frowned, clearing his throat and waving to get the deputy's attention

"Oh Stiles! Scott didn't tell me you were here," he noted, pausing for a few moments before starting to go pale

"Oh Scotty..." Stiles said with a loud sigh

"I'm sorry... I'd go back and get one for you too but the office closed five minutes ago,"

"It's fine, I have a ride anyway,"

"You do?" the deputy asked with a tilt of his head

"Yep, in fact, I'm going to go see him now, since you guys are going to stay here for a few hours until the train leaves, you don't need me to stick around and chew Scott to peices,"

"Stiles, wait," she said quickly, grabbing him by the arm and tugging him closer

"I really think you should be carefull.... an Omega offering to be alone with two strange Alphas? Something isn't right,"

"Maybe, or maybe you're judging too quickly, look... I usually would agree with you, but there's just something about Derek that's... that's GOOD, I can feel it," he insisted

"I hope you know what you're doing," she said with a quiet, slightly frustrated sigh

Stiles gave a small smile, pulling her into a quick hug and nodding in agreement

"I'll be fine, ok? And if I'm not.... well, tell my dad I love him,"

Lydia just rolled her eyes, but waved to him anyway as he left, heading back outside and making his way towards Derek with a gentle smile on his face

"Hey there Big Guy, you ready to go?"

Derek's face lit up slightly, a small smile crossing his features as he nodded in agreement

"Yeah, let's go,"

 

~+~

 

"You're a Hufflepuff? That's awesome! I'm a Slytherin myself, you know what they say about Slytherins and Hufflepuffs right?"

"That we work well together?" Derek asked with a small smile

"Well yeah to put it mildly," Stiles shrugged back

They had been walking for a wile now, almost at the opening leading into the woods, and they had actually been finding out quite a bit about eachother

Derek was shy and didn't talk much, but he was good company and they were getting along really well together

Still though, something about what Lydia had been saying earlier was still bugging him

He didn't think that Derek had any ulterior motives but he couldn't help wondering if there WAS something that he wanted from Stiles in exchange for doing him such a favor

Derek seemed nice- sincerely, genuinely- but Lydia had been right, this WAS an awfully big thing to offer a complete stranger.....

"Hey uh... not to be, you know _that_ guy, but... can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Derek shrugged simply

"Well... not that I doubt your intentions at all but... it's just sorta weird that you're doing this big favor for somebody you don't even know, you're uh.... awfully selfless, is there.. you know, maybe, something you might want in exchange?"

"I don't blame you for asking," Derek said immediately

"Especially considering that there IS something I want ... if you can provide it,"

"Yeah? And what would that be?" Stiles asked cautiously

He definitely wasn't opposed to paying him somehow, or doing him some kind of favor, after all, Derek was really doing a pretty big favor for him for absolutely no reason and he deserved some kind of compensation....

It just needed to be a payment and/or favor that he was morally (or financially) prepared to pay

"I need a favor,"

"Ok.... care to elaborate on that a little bit?"

"It... would be easier to show you rather than tell you,"

Stiles didn't like the sound of that, hell he flat-out HATED the sound of that, but he still didn't get any bad feelings from Derek, and that was kind of amazing, Stiles tended to get bad feelings from most people

So he was willing to trust him- for now

"Alright then," he said with a quiet sigh, forcing the tension away from his shoulders as they walked

"Let's keep going,"

 

~+~

 

"So you haven't found your mate either then? That's a shame,"

"Yeah, I don't think they're in Lily Valley to be honest," Derek confessed with a slight shrug

"Well, have you tried looking in Beacon Hills?"

The wolf- who was now confirmed to be a wolf- shook his head, eyes averted as they walked towards the cabin at the edge of the woods

"No... afraid not,"

"Really? They have a pretty good crop of people, you might find someone there,"

Derek didn't respond verbally, just shook his head and suddenly veering off away from the cabin

"Um... dude?"

"The favor I need? It's back here, follow me,"

Well _that_ just got incredibly more concerning...

Because going into the back of the woods where things weren't immediately visible sounded like an INCREDIBLY safe thing to do

"Alright... sure, whatever you say...." he muttered quietly

"It isn't anything bad, don't worry," Derek assured him with a small smirk, apparently sensing his hesitation

Even so, Stiles would be the one to judge that...

"Just a little further," the wolf added a second later, waving him behind some trees

Once Stiles had followed, he found himself ... more than a little shocked

There was an enormous waterfall just up ahead, a narrow stretch of land connecting between the exit of the woods and the mouth of the falls

"Holy crap..."

He didn't even get a chance to process his shock really, his heart suddenly skipping a beat as Derek grabbed his hand and started to pull him further along

"How the hell did I never know this was here!? I've been to this town like four times already!"

"Not many people know about it, even some residents of the town don't know about this,"

"Wow, really? How the hell did you manage to keep it a secret?"

"Well it isn't intentional, but.... how many people do you really think come back here and wander around until they find it for no apparent reason?"

He supposed that was a decent point...

"It's really pretty..."

"Yeah, it is," Derek agreed quietly, a slight smile on his face as he paused right in front of the waterfall

The water was deafening, it was almost all that Stiles could hear at this point, he couldn't imagine how the hell a werewolf was standing it without going completely out of his mind

"Come here!!!" Derek shouted over the roar of the water, squeezing Stiles' hand a little bit tighter as he tugged him behind the waterfall

At first Stiles wasn't sure what the hell he was planning to do, but then he sort of had a realization....

They weren't getting wet

And his back wasn't pressed up against a wall

Slowly, he turned around, jumping slightly at the completely open air he was faced with

Well.... sort of

He was faced with the mouth of a cave

A really, really deep cave

"Come on," Derek said after a moment, gently patting Stiles on the back and leading him into the cave, his voice echoing throughout the empty air around him

Well.... no going back now, he might as well follow

"Can you create some light?"

"Um... sure, yeah," Stiles said after a moment, snapping his fingers as a bright, white light emerged from his palm

And it was in that moment that Stiles saw exactly what Derek (most likely) wanted his favor for

There in the middle of the cave lay a baby deer on top of a big bed of hay, a large bowl of water in front of the little creature with a pile of grass next to it

Oh God.... please don't let this be about hurting the deer....

"Can you heal it?"

Wait what?

"Wait what?"

"The deer, she hurt her leg, can you heal it? You're a witch right? So.... can you? I can't carry her all the way to our local healer, it's too far,"

"Yeah," he said quickly, clearing his throat

"Yeah, hell yeah, I can do that, but uh... I can't heal and light at the same time, so, is it possible to get her outside in the sunlight so I can see?"

Derek gave a small, shy smile and reached down, very, very carefully picking up the fawn

"Yeah... we can do that,"

 

~+~

 

"So how exactly did you come across this little cutie pie?" Stiles asked curiously

He had been healing the fawn's leg for a few minutes now, luckily the break wasn't too bad so it wouldn't take very long, but any break was bound to take atleast a little wile so he might as well make conversation

"I was just taking a walk when I heard her crying, I managed to get her to the cave and have been taking care of her for about two weeks now, just waiting on a witch or a member of the Fae community who would help me,"

So that was why he'd been so eager to help Stiles, so that Stiles would help the deer...

Well now he just felt like a total butthead for ever doubting Derek in the first place

"Why couldn't you just ask your healer to travel?" he asked curiously

"She's pregnant, she can't make this kind of trek, and she's the only healing specialist we have around here,"

Well that certainly sucked

"Well she should be fine now, and I'm sure the nature spirits and the Goddess will be extremely greatfull that you've done so much to help this little dude,"

"You're calling the baby deer 'dude' now?" Derek snorted

"Well yeah, everybody's a dude, I'm a dude, you're a dude, Lydia is a dude, the bird in that tree over there is a dude, everybody's a dude,"

"Yeah but... please tell me you aren't going to try to NAME her that,"

"No no, this is your deer- I mean, well, sorta, obviously not really, not like she can be your pet or anything but you found her so you name her,"

"Uh-huh," Derek smirked teasingly

Stiles shrugged, finally leaning back and brushing off his hands

"Alright, she's all healed up, hopefully that's the last misfortune that befalls her,"

"I hope so," Derek agreed quietly, very, very carefully reaching out and helping the fawn stand up

The deer made a few little noises, trembling a little as she was forced to stand up, but ultimately she stood, she didn't fall or collapse or anything, just a bit of wobbling

"Thank you for this, really," Derek said quietly

"Dude.... seriously, you really, really don't need to thank me, I would have done this regardless, we're talking about a BABY. DEER. are you serious? How could anyone NOT help a baby deer?"

"Still, it was nice of you, and... I promised you a ride home, I'm going to give you that ride now,"

Stiles nodded slowly, glancing up at the sky, the clouds starting to clutter up closer to the sun and running the sky darker, not quite near sunset but starting to get close enough...

"It's about to get pretty dark out actually.... you know, I'm not really that busy or anything so if you want we could just wait until tommorrow, and I mean, I don't want you to be driving in the dark or anything,"

Derek blinked, tilting his head to the side in confusion

"But... if we were going to do that, you might as well just take a train, shorter trip, more amenities, not having to ride with a practical stranger.... it seems like the better deal,"

Oh hell.... he had a point

"Well...." he muttered quietly

He didn't know how to get out of this now

"But you have a point," Derek said suddenly, jerking Stiles' attention towards him again

"I mean.... that it's getting dark out, if you want to stay with me for the night you're welcome to, you can either take the train tommorrow or I can drive you like I said I would, you can decide in the morning,"

"Sure, sounds like a plan,"

He had until tommorrow morning

He could _definitely_ come up with a convincing lie by tommorrow morning

 

~+~

 

"So.... what do we do now?"

"I guess we just go inside and try to make the best of it, there really isn't much else we _can_ do,"

Stiles stared down at the little deer in front of them, still somewhat perplexed

Derek couldn't keep the deer as a pet could he?

She was still a wild animal

And yet... it seemed needlessly cruel to force her to stay outside in such a cold and unforgiving world

(Ok maybe not LITERALLY cold because, you know, mid-summer, but that's far beyond the point)

But with no other options seeming to be available, Derek opened the door, stepping inside and holding the door open for Stiles and the deer

They both walked in, wich really shouldn't have been as much of a surprise as it was

"You know you're going to have to name her now though, right?"

"But if I name her I'll just want to keep her..."

Stiles raised an eyebrow, watching as the little deer made her way straight to the couch, made a little stumbling leap, and curled up there as if she owned the place

"... I don't think that's really your choice anymore Buddy,"

Derek inhaled deeply, heaving a sigh as he watched the little deer snuggle into the couch

"Ok, fine, how about Barbie?"

"Wah- ... _Barbie_? _Barbie_ the deer?"

"What do you want from me?" Derek pouted

"I... yeah, ok, you know, it's kind of cute," he noted with a small shrug

It was weird and corny as hell but ... it was also kinda cute he supposed

"I'm going to make dinner, is there anything specific that you don't eat?"

"That, my freind, is a loaded question," Stiles snorted back

"Then do you want to come and help me cook?" he offered

"'Sure, and uh... by the way, in case you didn't already guess this, my plans for this chocolate are kind of up the river at this point so... if you want it, you're welcome to it," he noted, handing over the box of chocolate pouches

It wasn't like he'd be able to use it for advertisement on the train back anymore after all, might as well give it to the guy who was going out of his way to help Stiles just for the health of some random baby deer

Derek DESERVED this chocolate

Derek's lips twitched up into a soft smile, eyes going warm as he reached out and gently took the box from him

"Thanks, I appreciate that,"

"Well then we're pretty evenly matched, 'cause I appreciate... you know, all of this,"

Derek ginned slightly, shaking his head and leading him into the kitchen

Stiles followed, feeling a weird, sudden fluttering in his chest

He hoped he wasn't getting sick or something....

 

~+~

 

Stiles liked Derek

That was just the plain truth to it

Stiles really, REALLY liked Derek, as a matter of fact

They got along so much better than he had ever anticipated, and they had more in common than he had first thought

They had played Go Fish with freaking _Supernatural_ playing cards after dinner and had talked about The Walking Dead for so long it made Stiles' head spin

Derek had a sweet tooth, apparently, considering how quickly he was going through the chocolate Stiles had given him, and he had shown Stiles some photos of some of the clothes he had made (after much prodding from Stiles' side) and it was all _gorgeous_

Derek was an animal person, wich probably should have been obvious given the deer but it was still incredibly nice to listen to him talk about all of the wild animals he had met out in the woods and all of his adventures with the domestic animals in town

He was a kids person too, he loved kids and apparently kids loved him since they were always requesting him to guest-teach arts and crafts at the local summer camp

Derek was _amazing_ and quite frankly, screw liking him ok?

Stiles was _in love_

He couldn't remember the last time he had just... connected to someone so well

The last time he had felt so extremely in touch with another person

Even with Lydia and Scott it always felt like there was a level of disconnect

Things he couldn't tell them because they wouldn't understand, or things he would talk about that they never quite grasped

And that was the other thing- Derek _listened_

Stiles still did most of the talking, don't get him wrong, Derek didn't talk much and was kind of to-the-point when he did, but at the same time he COMMUNICATED in ways that most people never did

Like he was actually listening and paying attention to what Stiles had to say and that was freaking incredible!!

If he was being honest, Stiles had spent the first two hours of "trying to sleep" thinking about ways he could stay with Derek longer, excuses he could make, things he could do...

Nothing sounded appealing or even remotely un-creepy so he was ruling out idea after idea and it was starting to get a little concerning

He tossed and tuned a little bit more in the very nice guest bed Derek was letting him sleep in, trying to get his mind wrapped around something

The thing is that Derek didn't have a phone, and although he DID have internet Stiles kind of doubted that he had email or social media of any kind, he just seemed like _that_ type of person, so staying in touch after this was going to be hell on earth if Stiles didn't work out something ahead of time

But what...?

_Mahhhhhhhh!!!!_

The witch sat up in bed, eyebrows quirking as he stared at the door

Had he just-?

_Mahhhhhhhhh!!!!!_

Yep, that was the deer

But why was the deer screaming at the door?

_MAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!_

Ok that was quite enough

With a snap of his wrist the door flung open, revealing, indeed, that Barbie was standing there glaring at him, as if frustrated that he hadn't opened the door sooner

But her annoyance seemed to subside as she trotted into the bedroom, starting to lick at his hand and nudging against the side of the bed, crying and screaming every few seconds

"Oh my God where is you father?" he huffed in irritation

Had he accidentally bonded to this deer?

He knew that Derek obviously had but had the fawn made the mistake of thinking Stiles was her new second daddy?

With nothing but a slight sigh of annoyance, Stiles slipped out of the bed and headed immediately towards Derek's bedroom

"Derek?" he called, gently tapping on the door

"Hey Derek, your deer is requiring attention!" he added, a little bit louder this time

But there was no answer

And Barbie hadn't seemed to calm down _at all_

And Stiles was starting to get a little bit annoyed

(Ok more than a little bit)

Finally deciding that enough was enough, Stiles opened the door, peeking inside and finding...

Derek wasn't there

He frowned, stepping into the room and glancing around, as if he expected Derek to be hiding in the corner or something

(He wasn't)

"Derek?" he called, worry pulling at his face as he explored

"Hey Derek, where the hell are you?"

It wasn't until he got to the window that he ultimately got his answer

Glancing down and peeking outside, he felt a pang of nervousness at the sight of Derek wandering around through the woods outside

"Where the hell is he going this late?" he muttered to himself

Barbie decided to answer anyway though- with another scream ofcourse

"Alright alright I'm going..." he muttered, heading over to Derek's closet and grabbing a random shirt off of one of the hangers

He knew it was kind of an invasion of privacy, but the deer wouldn't stop crying and Stiles was a little bit worried and well... they weren't close enough yet that a real basis of trust had actually been established so he could probably get away with it without too much trouble

And if not...

If not he blamed the deer

Wasting no more time, he took a breath and carried the shirt back to his room

Time for a locator spell....

 

~+~

 

Stiles still didn't know where the hell Derek was going

He had been following the werewolf for close to fourty-five minutes now and he didn't recognize any of the terrain

He was considerably surprised when Derek ended up stepping onto the back porch of a house- a fairly large house for that matter, easily big enough for six or seven people to live in comfortably, if not more

It wasn't a mansion or anything, but it was enough

It was _more_ than enough

He watched in surprise as Derek slipped a key into lock and walked inside, not bothering to lock the door behind him apparently

He shouldn't do this

He really shouldn't

Following Derek had been a bad enough thing to do but following him inside someone else's house?

That was all SORTS of bad

...

But then he remembered the screaming baby deer at home and suddenly it didn't seem like such a terrible thing after all

Taking a deep breath, he followed after him, licking his lips and stepping inside the house

The moment the door was shut behind him, he turned around ... and was immediately met with a very strange, and VERY unhappy looking creature

It had feathered wings, talons, and a beak like a bird, but the rest of it was more like a horse, from the tail to the neck to the body to the fur, it was...

"Oh holy crap.... a hippogriff...."

It was much smaller than Stiles had ever thought them to be

The hippogriff really didn't like him, it reared back and screeched as loudly as it possibly could

"Stiles? What are you doing here?"

He turned, mouth falling open as he stared up at Derek.... who was holding a baby dragon....

He needed to sit down....

 

~+~

 

"So... you're basically the real life, werewolf version of Newt Scamander?"

Derek gave a fond roll of his eyes, lips quirking up into a grin

"If that helps you,"

"This is AMAZING!!! Why the hell do you live in that little cabin in the woods when you have this place?"

Stiles was sitting in the middle of the floor, covered in blankets, with a baby dragon in his lap

He was feeding the dragon grapes

This was heaven

"It isn't safe for them if people know what I really do, it's not just me either, it's... sort of the family business, we've been doing this for generations, my sisters and cousin usually are here too but they all had things to do out of town today so I had to sneak away to make sure everyone was alright here,"

"Wow, that is by far the COOLEST thing I've ever heard, though I'm sorry you have to keep it a secret,"

"It's ok, I like spending time in the woods anyhow, it's a good place to find creatures like this and it's just... peacefull out there,"

Yeah, Stiles definitely understood _that_

"Sooooo.... you take care of all the orphaned baby animals? Or baby magical animals atleast?"

"As many as we can take on yes, and it isn't just animals either, Lily Valley is as much a hub for magic as Beacon Hills, it's just... a different kind of magic and a different kind of society, if that makes any sense,"

"Actually... do you think you could explain it a little more?"

Derek was quiet for a moment, leaning back and stroking the head of the baby hippogriff in his lap

"Beacon Hills has the nemeton, kanima, and banshees in the homicide unit, Lily Valley has Pixie Dust, baby dragons, and have replaced most modern technology with magic that functions essentially the same way but is better for the environment,"

Holy crap...

He wondered, distantly, in the back of his mind, if that had anything to do with why Lily Valley had such a high volume of Omega births vs Beacon Hills' high volume of Alpha births

Beacon Hills was tense and always on edge, Lily Valley seemed to be a real life paradise...

"So... do you really make clothes?"

"Yeah, but more as a hobby than a career, my family sort of has the old money thing going so we devote as much time as we can to taking care of the little ones,"

He called them _"the little ones"_ , Stiles felt like he was going to pass out from cute here

"Do they all have names?" he asked curiously, after all, the hippogiff did- apparently her name was Veronica, Stiles didn't even ask why

"Yep, every last one of them, the one you're holding there is Cosima, we named her entire litter after Orphan Black charectors so there's also Sarah, Helena, Alison, Beth, Felix, and Art,"

_"Oh my God,"_

He was quiet for a moment, scratching carefully behind Cosima's ears before deciding to pose another question

"Veronica wouldn't happen to be named after Veronica Lodge would she?"

Derek just shrugged, and Stiles started peicing together the .. er... peices...

And Barbie after Barbie dolls....

"You ENORMOUS nerd, is the rest of your family this geeky?"

"No, but they're geeky enough, and they usually let me choose the names, with plenty of options to veto ofcourse,"

Well that made some sense...

"This is all just too amazing," he said with a bright grin

"I'm glad you like it, you know you'll have to keep it a secret though right? It's bad enough that YOU know about all of this, we can't have other people finding out too,"

"No no I totally get it! Trust me, your secret is my secret, no one will ever know, swear it,"

Derek offered him a shy smile, gently lifting Veronica out of his lap and standing up to stretch

"Thank you... I really can't tell you how much I appreciate it,"

"You don't have to thank me- safety first, I get that, if your position was ever discovered by the wrong person it could easily mean disaster for all of you,"

"Exactly, I'm glad you understand,"

"Yeah ofcourse," he nodded, licking his lips and staring down at the dragon for a moment longer

"Can um.... can I ask, if... if your secret has ever fallen into the wrong hands before?"

It was probably corny and cliche in every way imaginable but he just... needed to know for some reason that he couldn't quite understand

Judging by the look on Derek's face...

He really didn't even need to answer

"There have been times, yes, some worse than others,"

Stiles was curious, but he knew just by looking at the wolf that that would be dredging up far, far too much pain and the absolute last thing he wanted to do was step on something that was already clearly hurting his freind so badly

"Then... why did you let me in on the secret? You could have run me off or something, taken me to have my memory wiped by your healer even,"

"I trust you, I.. don't think you'd hurt any of them, especially after the way you treated Barbie earlier, it's probably stupid of me to trust someone so strongly when I barely know you but... I do, for some reason,"

"No no I.. I know the feeling, I mean I followed a complete stranger into the woods and was going to let you give me a ride before I even knew you at all, remember?"

It was the same feeling Stiles had had about him, as a matter of fact, weird how that happened...

"I guess we're both kind of foolish then huh?" Derek asked with a slight smile

"Yeah, guess so," Stiles nodded back, pausing for a moment before speaking again

"Hey... Derek? I don't have anything important going on at home for a wile, maybe I could stay for a few days, give you a hand around here or something? Or... or not, but I'm just saying, I really like it here, I think it'll be kinda neat to just spend some more time here away from the city and all the endless crap that comes with it, and if your sisters and cousin are going to be gone a little longer you could probably use the help so-"

"Stiles, you really don't have to explain anything to me," Derek said with a slight smile

"I'd love for you to stay,"

 

~+~

 

Stiles woke up to the sensation of something licking his face

At first, he panicked- because something was _licking his face_

But when he opened his eyes... well, he kind of had a different kind of panicking going on then

Because as it turns out, the thing licking his face?

It was a freaking _baby unicorn_

He nearly had a stroke

Unicorns were sacred animals, they only ever approached people who they deemed as pure of heart, especially the babies who were even more sensitive than the adults

And now one was _licking his face_ and he had no idea how this had become his life but he so so SO wanted to thank whoever was responsible for it

The unicorn trotted away, and Stiles slowly sat up, staring at the wall as if he had just discovered the secrets of the universe or something

And to be fair, it kind of felt like he had essentially done that...

"I see you met Willow,"

Stiles' head snapped up, heart pounding slightly as he turned his attention towards Derek, who was standing in the doorway with a cup of coffee and a plate of breakfast- bacon, eggs, toast...

All of a sudden he sort of noticed how hungry he was

"I did yeah... I don't even remember falling asleep last night," he confessed with a slight sigh, reaching up for the food as Derek moved closer and carefully handed him the coffee

"You were watching the baby griffons play and you just sort of... dozed off,"

"Oh..."

Come to think of it, he didn't remember anything after that, so that must have been when it happened...

It was weird, he usually had a hard time sleeping, especially with falling asleep, he always had to deal with nightmares and insomnia, but here, with Derek and surrounded by all of these little creatures, he had just gone out like a light...

And even stranger than that, he had actually slept _well_ too

No disturbing nightmares, no tossing and turning, no disrupted sleep at all....

It was incredibly, incredibly weird....

But also incredibly, incredibly NICE... he could stand to have more nights like that, seriously...

"You needed to call your dad right?"

"O-Oh um... yeah, yeah I do," Stiles nodded, breaking out of whatever the hell kind of stupor he had been in moments ago and clearing his throat

He needed to get a serious grip on things before something dangerous developed out of that little issue...

"I can call him from the hotel, if that's ok,"

Derek gave a slow, silent nod, before turning on his heel and heading- presumably- back to the kitchen

"That'll be fine, just finish breakfast, then we can get going,"

Stiles nodded shakily, licking his lips and turning back to his food... only to see a rather bold deer sitting right in front of him with her head already on the plate

"Is this really necessary?"

Considering the fact that she was already chewing on his toast.... the answer would probably be "Yes"

 

~+~

 

"Yeah Dad everything is fine, I promise, nothing is wrong, I just want to stay here for a few more days and explore the town,"

_"Well... if you're sure,"_

"I'm sure, tell everybody I'm ok and that I'll see 'em soon alright? Love you Dad,"

As soon as his father returned the saying and they exchanged farewells, he hung up and stared down at the phone

It was kind of weird that phones weren't a common household thing here like they were in almost every other part of the world, but alot of things about Lily Valley were weird that way so he supposed it fit

"Hey Derek, you ready to go?"

"Almost, I actually have to make a call myself, if that's ok,"

"Oh.. yeah absolutely, I mean, no need to ask my permission," Stiles shrugged back, stepping away from the phone to give Derek his privacy and wandering off a little bit further

The hotel was kind of huge, disproportionate to the rest of the town's general smallness, no doubt directly because of how often people from Beacon Hills came around

Even though Stiles had been here for three days during their little mate-hunting expedition...thing... he still hadn't seen even half of the hotel

There was a gift shop not that far from the lobby, he figured maybe he could find his dad a mug or something there, since his father had never been to Lily Valley- his parents had been one of the lucky few pairs to meet in highschool- he might find it nice

With a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure Derek was ok, he slipped inside, making his way over to the mug section

And Goddess help him.... he really underestimated exactly how big a mug section could be in a gift shop.... it was kind of intimidating to be honest

He picked up one of the ceramic coffee mugs, head tilting curiously as he glanced down at the beautifull valley designs on it and started to check for a price

_"I know the property is secure, I said I'd be carefull,"_

Now that had Stiles' curiosity peaked, looking up from the mug and glancing around the shelves, wondering what property the stranger was talking about

_"It shouldn't be that hard, dragons aren't exactly the most quiet of species, if there are chicks there we'll certainly hear them,"_

She was looking for dragon chicks?

That.... couldn't be good

He swallowed tightly, setting the mug down and slowly creeping towards the brunette in the corner to get a better listen

_"The Hales are gone today, it shouldn't be a problem,"_

The Hales?

The Hales were Derek's family.... and all of a sudden Stiles was starting to get a frighteningly good picture of what all of this was most likely about

Stiles didn't hesitate any further, leaping out immediately and tackling the stranger to the ground, magic pooling at his fingertips as he forced her arms behind her back

"What the hell!? What are you doing!?" she screamed, kicking and struggling beneath him

"You're a dragon hunter aren't you?! You want to take Derek's chicks!"

Wich, admittedly, sounded much stranger than he really intended it to but that wasn't the point

"I'm not a dragon hunter, I'm with the FBI!" the woman beneath him screamed

Immediately, Stiles paused, his face paling as he slowly moved away and unbound her hands, watching the woman sit up and stare at him with irritation

"Why is the FBI involving themselves with the Hales and their dragons? How do you even KNOW about the Hales and their dragons? And why are you making it a point of checking on them without them being in town right now anyway?"

"There's a dragon theif in the valley, we don't know who it is but they've been taking eggs and chicks for the last couple of weeks, and with the sheriff having just died the town is still scrambling to get law enforcement together, so they called us, as for how we know, all magical creature caretakers have to register with the government so they can avoid being suspected in these things and report to us if their charges have been taken,"

"Right.... and again, this begs the question, what does this have to do with the Hales? And why are you trying to investigate with them not around?"

"Because the Hales have dragons, we just wanted to make sure they were legitimate- the ones they registered with us a couple of months ago,"

"Wait a minute, you suspect the Hales to be dragon theives? Are you SERIOUS!? And after you JUST said that caretakers register to AVOID being suspected!?"

There was a pause, the FBI agent releasing a quiet breath as she reached back and carefully pushed a strand of hair behind her ear

"You're Stiles, right? Lydia has talked about you alot, she mentioned you were hanging around with Derek Hale today,"

And no doubt that Derek was supposed to be driving him home- or supposed to have already driven him home, he supposed- and thus wouldn't be home to protect the chicks....

"Lydia knows you?"

"I'm her partner, Allison," she explained

Yeah... somehow that didn't warm Stiles' feelings about her at all....

But it did explain why Lydia had been so extremely sharp with Derek all day yesterday and kept insisting that Stiles shouldn't be around him

It wasn't about "stranger danger", it was because she knew he was a suspect...

"Do you have a warrant to check Derek's chicks?"

"Well.... no-"

"Then I suggest you get one before you step on the property," he snapped, wasting no time in heading out of the gift shop and making his way to Derek

He'd get his father a souvenir later, he needed to get away from all of this before he lost his mind and did something that would get him put in prison....

 

~+~

 

"I mean where do they get off!? As if it wasn't bad enough that they suspected you in the first place, then they actually try check out your chicks wile you're not around!? God that's just so skeevy!! But sure, ofcourse, what do I EXPECT from the FBI? Freaking government, full of nothing but crooked morons..."

"Unfortunately we're used to things like this, small towns like Lily Valley are more understanding because so many residents care for the land and wildlife, but the majority of the world is still city-operated and just doesn't care to understand," Derek shrugged back, grabbing a few packages of cucumber seeds from the shelf in front of him

He had realized shortly after hanging up the phone that he had gotten too distracted yesterday to go shopping and now here they were, at the farmer's market, and Derek was just trying to concentrate on getting what he needed for the house wile also listening to Stiles' rant

He wished his sister was there with him, she was always so much better at choosing fruit than he was...

"That sucks!!" the Alpha almost screamed

"It does, do these strawberries look good to you?"

Stiles heaved a sigh, huffing under his breath and glancing down at the box of strawberries Derek had picked up

"Yeah I think so... but I can't understand why Lydia didn't just TELL me about all of this!"

"Maybe she was under a gag order," Derek offered with a shrug, setting the strawberries down in his basket

"Maybe...." the witch muttered back, stopping midstep and suddenly grabbing Derek's hand, pulling him to a halt as consequence

"Listen, until all of this is taken care of, I'm not going anywhere ok? I'm going to stay here until the real dragon-napper is put behind bars!"

"Stiles.... as much as I appreciate it- and I do, really, I do- that's... I can't ask you to do that, especially since we don't know how long that will take, it could be months,"

"You aren't asking me to, I'm telling you, I'm going to stay, besides it isn't like it's any trouble, saying you'd be 'asking me' to stay here and help you look after the little critters is like 'asking' a chocolate addict to stay at Willy Wonka's, BELIEVE me when I tell you that it isn't going to be a problem for me, even if it DOES take a wile,"

Derek's lips twitched up into a slight smirk, giving a nod and trying to ignore the happy flutters in his chest

"Thanks,"

"Trust me big guy," Stiles said, slapping his hand gently against Derek's back

"You have nothing to thank me for,"

 

~+~

 

"This is amazing..." Stiles breathed, his eyes flicking around in direction after direction, mouth hung open in sheer and utter awe

"I mean... it's unreal...."

"It's just a green house," Derek said with a shy shrug, earning a snort of disapproval from Stiles

"It isn't 'just a green house' dude, it's THE greenhouse, the greenhouse to end all greenhouses!!"

"You're exaggerating," Derek snorted, though he couldn't keep the smile off of his face

Although the entire household was maintained and cared for by everyone in his family, the greenhouse was sort of his personal pet project, and he was really happy to hear how proud Stiles was of it

Ofcourse, he wasn't quite sure why Stiles' praise mattered to him so much, but.... for some reason, it did

Maybe because Stiles was an Alpha?

After all, he was always over the moon to have any praise from Laura and she was an Alpha, so it made decent sense

"This is really incredible.... you guys have EVERYTHING here, well... except for phones apparently," Stiles said with a teasing smirk

"But we have something much BETTER than phones," Derek said with a smirk

"Oh yeah? Well then, that I'll _have_ to see,"

"It's your lucky day, want to watch me call my sister?"

Considering the way Stiles' eyes lit up at that.... he would take it as a yes

 

~+~

 

"So... you send one of these birds and they take your message to basically whoever, but doesn't that take an eternity?"

"Mm... not when you're using _these_ birds," Derek smirked back, gently stroking the back of his index finger against the raven's head

"Watch," he added a second later, reaching over with his free hand to pick up a tiny canister, the kind one would usually put a letter in to send with carrier pigeons- and other service birds apparently

He cleared his throat, flipping open the lid and speaking into it, though Stiles couldn't quite make out what he was saying

Once he finished, he shut the lid and gently strapped the canister to the raven's back, scratching under the bird's chin for a moment before walking towards the open window, cooing softly to the bird and watching as the raven took off outside

At first Stiles was rather confused about what was so special in regards to this bird, but then he watched in amazement as a small, black portal started to open up in the sky

The bird flew in, the portal closed, and it all sort of clicked in his mind

"Your birds can portal-travel?"

"Very quick aren't you?" Derek teased gently

"Wow... portal-travelers are incredibly rare, I can't believe you have them..."

"Actually they breed pretty well in this town, alot of people are using them instead of phones,"

"Wich explains alot," Stiles teased back playfully

"Exactly," Derek smirked, moving to close the open window and snap the lock on it down

"Man.... you must love it here huh?" Stiles asked quietly, taking a step over towards the door, eager to explore more of the house- after all, they had only just begun

"I do... I really do, do you like the city?"

"Um.... not so much, I mean, it's not like I really DISlike it or anything, it just isn't really my cup of tea,"

"Well... maybe you can move out here sometime," he suggested with a small shrug

"I'd love to, seriously, but ... my dad is the sheriff and I can't stand to be an entire town away from him you know?"

"I understand that, I could never live away from my sisters and cousin either,"

"It's cool that you get that, not everyone does,"

"Yeah, but considering that my family has been keeping this 'business' for over a hundred years, those sorts of attachments are bound to be basically bred in,"

"That's ... a long time, have you guys been living in Lily Valley all that time?"

"Actually.... we used to live in Beacon Hills," he confessed quietly

"Woah... seriously? Why didn't you say so before?" Stiles asked excitedly- maybe a little too excitedly

All it took was one glance at Derek's face to know the answer to that question

"Hey uh... nevermind, you don't need to answer that, it's fine, what's in here?" he asked, pointing towards a random door

Anything to get the attention off of the last question he had asked...

"A library, want to see?" Derek offered gently

It was like he had just asked a kid if he wanted to go into a candy store

 _Ofcourse_ he wanted to see!

"OFCOURSE I want to see!! Dude I LOVE libraries, and books in general," he said with an excited grin

Derek smiled a little more, the look of pain and anxiety disappearing and being replaced with one of soft amusement

"You and I both," he said with a small smirk, opening the door and holding it open for Stiles to step in

And when he did...

When he did he could practically feel his eyes getting bigger and his mouth falling open

The library was absolutely _massive_ , like the kind of thing that made him think of the one in Beauty & The Beast or something

"How many books are in here?" he asked quietly

"Are you actually asking or are you just _that_ amazed?" Derek asked with a slight smirk

"Uh... well, that depends, if I was asking seriously would you be able to actually answer me?"

"I probably wouldn't, these aren't all mine obviously, we've been keeping these books for generations, adding to them steadily over the years, I don't even remember how many we had when I was born... much less how many we have now,"

"Well aren't you lucky?" Stiles snorted, taking a hesitant step towards the nearest shelf and letting his fingers skim over a row of spines

"Man... I bet my books couldn't even make a splash in here..."

"To be fair, neither did mine when we first moved here and had this thing built, our library at our old place was much smaller, alot of the books were in storage,"

"Yeah? Have you guys been here long?"

"I guess that depends on how you define 'long', we've been here since I was seventeen, so about seven years now,"

"Yeah? Huh, how come I've never seen you around here before then? I've been to Lily Valley before,"

"I'm not all that social, as you may have guessed, and I spend most of my time either here or at the cabin, I don't get out that much, not really a people person,"

"I sorta gathered that much, still... shame I couldn't have met you before,"

"Oh I don't know, I may not have been so warm and freindly if you had met me before I needed a favor from you," he teased

"You know, I'm not sure what part of that is funnier, you being 'warm and freindly', or you thinking that I believe that you'd really have been cold to me earlier,"

"You have too much faith in me," Derek snorted, reaching up to pull a book from one of the higher shelves, his shirt riding up and revealing a small patch of skin, his naval, his happy trail...

Stiles jumped suddenly, turning around and feeling a rush of anxiety flood through him as he stared back at the door

"Did you hear that?"

"That little crash? It was probably one of the little ones, they can get rowdy sometimes,"

"It sounded like it came from outside,"

"Sometimes they go outside and play,"

Stiles pursed his lips, nose wrinkling

Something about this just didn't feel right...

He couldn't exactly say why or pinpoint what it was but it was... it was _something_....

"Stiles? Where are you going?"

The Alpha didn't answer him, his instincts to check out the potential problem and keep Derek safe were pretty much all he could think of at the moment and it was definitely ruling his current train of thought

"Stiles!" Derek repeated, rushing after him as the witch made his way to the back door, slipping outside wordlessly and shutting it behind him as a silent way of telling Derek not to follow him

He tried his hardest to be quiet, to not make any other sounds as he tip-toed around the property, looking out for any signs of anything that might possibly be amiss

He may not have the heightened senses that werewolves had, but as an Alpha he had a certain intuition about him, something that just told him when things were wrong, and that intuition was really ringing loudly now...

He could feel his body tensing up, and just as he took another step around the corner, he spotted the intruder

He didn't waste a second, immediately leaping out from the bushes and tackling the stranger to the ground

There was a breif tussle, but it was fairly clear that his opponent wasn't an Alpha, so it wasn't that difficult to pin the guy down

Even less so when he managed to get the stranger's hands bound behind his back

"You freak!! Get off of me!" the stranger shouted in irritation, squirming further underneath the witch as Stiles continued to ruthlessly hold him down, snarling under his breath

"Were you here to steal our dragons!?"

(Stiles didn't know at what point this became a _"we"_ and _"our"_ situation but it was a little late to go back on it now)

"Wait, you don't understand!"

"Were you going to steal the dragons or not!?"

"Yes but-!"

Stiles didn't hesitate to pull his hand back and punch the guy as hard as he could

He assumed the loud snapping sound he heard was the stranger's nose

 

~+~

 

"His name is Jackson Whittemore, Omega, kanima, he owns a high-end clothing boutique, he's not talking but he's been in trouble with the law before for assault and for the theivery of rare goods, ofcourse it's important to distinguish that when we say 'theivery'-"

"You mean plucking some phoenix feathers rather than stepping into a shoe store and lifting a pair," Stiles concluded

Allison gave a small nod, shutting her notepad and slipping it into her jacket pocket

Lydia- who had apparently gotten there about an hour ago- had already taken the kanima to their car, leaving Allison to handle the slightly frazzled Omega...

And Stiles

Who was far less than pleased

"Ofcourse we don't have any solid proof yet and we still need to get a statement but... it's looking like we probably have our dragon-napper,"

"That's good news, I guess it's a good thing you didn't accuse Derek then huh? Oh wait..."

"Stiles, I'm just doing my job, we're talking to _all_ dragon-surrogates, and you need to know that if this guy checks out... we're going to have to come back and double check Mr. Hale's nest to be sure that he only has the chicks he registered with the state to take on and that none of them were tagged or reported as missing,"

For someone who didn't have an ounce of werewolf blood, Stiles certainly did a great job at looking like he was about to shift and rip someone's throat out...

"There should be some points given for common freaking sense, wouldn't you think?"

"You would think," she agreed with a small nod, turning her attention towards Derek and giving him an apologetic look

"I'm sorry for the trouble Mr. Hale.... for what it's worth,"

Derek just nodded quietly in return and shifted a little bit closer to Stiles, feeling a wave of releif pass over him when the Alpha wrapped an arm around his waist, steadying him, grounding him, _anchoring_ him

"I'll contact you later with whatever develops," she promised, finally stepping off of the porch and allowing Stiles to pull the door shut

"I just can't believe they really suspected you of stealing dragons, it just blows my mind! And not in a good way," Stiles snarled with frustration, his arm still wrapped protectively around Derek's waist as he walked into the kitchen with him

If he was being completely and entirely honest, he hadn't even realized that he was doing it

And Derek wasn't about to tell him and risk him letting go

"Yeah... but it's what I'd expect from an Argent, I don't know if I really believe this rule was set by her superiors, Argents have a tendency to blame the supernatural for pretty much everything, and they don't have the best relationship with my family,"

Stiles wondered in the back of his mind if that had anything to do with why the Hales had left Beacon Hills, the Argent family had been prominent there for decades so it would sort of make sense

Allison was probably nice enough on her own, but Stiles wasn't sure if family influence would wash out just because she was a nice person

And for some reason that he couldn't quite understand, he was feeling extremely... protective of Derek

Sure a certain amount of that was just the natural instinct Alphas had to protect Omegas but it ran much deeper than that, it was affecting him much more intensely, and he knew that there was something abnormal about that

Problem was.... he didn't know exactly what to blame it on

"What do you want for dinner?" Derek asked, side-stepping the baby jackalope that had decided to take up residence in front of the stove

"Don't worry about it, I'll cook tonight, as long as that's ok,"

Derek's mouth fell open, clearly rather surprised at the offer and glancing between Stiles and the stove as if one was inherently going to destroy the other

Probably stemmed from the stereotype that Alphas couldn't cook, but being that Stiles owned his own candy company for the supernaturally inclined and had given Derek a big box of handmade chocolates yesterday, he really shouldn't be all that surprised anymore

"Um... sure, if you want to," he replied a little awkwardly

Stiles allowed a slight smile to cross over his face as he stepped towards the Omega and started getting out some cooking tools

"I want to, now... what do _you_ want for dinner?"

 

~+~

 

"THAT is freaking amazing, I never thought I'd live to see the day..."

"What, did you not think that Dwarf Russian Katkiis were bottle-fed at this age?" Derek asked with a slight snort

"Dude.... I didn't know Dwarf Russian Katkiis _existed_ until five minutes ago, I still don't know what the hell they are!"

The creature Derek was holding so securely in his lap was probably the cutest thing he had ever seen in his LIFE and he wasn't even sure how to describe what it looked like

It was small, about the size of a large kitten- maybe the size of a lion cub- with white and ice blue fur covering it's body, a long fluffy tail, a face that resembled a lion cub's, with tiny horns sticking out of it's head, and little wings growing out of it's back

It was so cute it made Stiles want to CRY and as if that wasn't bad enough Derek was _bottle-feeding_ it, it's little paws clutching at the plastic as Derek expertly handled the creature

Stiles felt like he might just pass out at this point

"I think that thing made my ovaries explode...."

"I'm pretty sure you don't HAVE ovaries," the werewolf teased

"I don't know what the big deal is though, they're cute, one might even say 'adorable', but they're still just Katkiis,"

Yeah, there was no way Stiles was going to admit that part of the appeal of this entire thing was watching Derek feed the little creature, that was starting to border on weird territory

And not the fun weird, the "get put on a list by the cops" weird

Maybe

He wasn't sure actually....

Before he could further contemplate all of this- or risk letting his pasta sauce burn due to lack of attention- a stroke of luck happened to fly into the kitchen in the form of Derek's bird

Well...

 _One of_ Derek's birds

"Laura must have sent word back," he noted, ignoring the amused look on Stiles' face as he held his free arm out and watched with delight as the bird perched on it

He balanced the little Katkii carefully as he unhooked the canister from around the bird's back, flicking it open and putting it up to his ear

Honestly, Stiles was starting to get a little annoyed with his inability to listen to these little portal phone-calls...

"Laura will be home tommorrow afternoon," Derek said after a moment, cooing to the raven again and watching as the bird fluttered off and ... landed right on Stiles' shoulder

Here's a fun fact: Ravens are a hell of alot bigger when they're right in your face than they are at, you know, a comfortable distance

"Um.... hi?" he squeaked, swallowing tightly as he stared up at the bird

"Give her a treat from the top cabinet, the kind with the birds on the front of the can,"

Stiles was a little hesitant, but there was no way in any universe that he was going to deny a large bird that was using him as a perch whatever the hell it wanted

"That's good about Laura," he said absently, reaching into the cabinet and slowly pulling down the can, his heart racing a little bit faster as he reached in and pulled out a small, baked treat, sorta like a cookie

"H-Here ya' go... Birdie...." he squeaked, carefully holding the treat out to the raven and jumping when the bird took it and swallowed it down

That was all it took for the raven to leave Stiles' shoulder and fly off out of the room

Really, Stiles was just glad the bird had decided not to use him for target practice...

"So..... is he just ... going back up to the aviary?"

"Yeah, there's a little bird door at the top for them to fly in and out, they like it up there though so they only fly out when they have to, Castiel in particular is something of a home-body,"

Somehow, THAT was the most amazing thing Stiles had seen out of this place

And then something occurred to him

"Wait a minute, _Castiel_!?"

 

~+~

 

Stiles wasn't sleeping in the guest room

He and Derek had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room watching a movie with Barbie curled up like a dog at Derek's feet- something that still shocked Stiles even now- and neither of them had really formally gone to bed

But at some point after a couple of hours Derek must have woken up and decided to move to a more comfortable sleeping arrangement, because now it was three in the morning and Stiles was in Derek's bed, snuggling up quite comfortably with the Omega

It was actually really nice, not just sharing a bed with someone, but sharing a bed with _Derek_ , having him right there easily within arm's reach, listening to his heartbeat, knowing he was ok...

He was glad for the circumstances, and he couldn't wait to do this more in the future

Ofcourse....

He realized, as he started thinking ahead like that, that there probably wouldn't be a future of all this

Derek was far too attached to everything here to ever leave Lily Valley- wich was reasonable on plenty of different levels- and Stiles couldn't leave Beacon Hills as long as his dad was there

And with him being the sheriff, leaving seemed pretty unlikely

Besides, that's all making the very dangerous assumption that Derek would even be interested in Stiles that way, wich he most likely wasn't

God....

He needed to stop thinking about all of this, he was just going to make himself sick wanting something that he really couldn't have...

He decided to just appreciate the situation for what it was worth (sort of) and shifted a little bit more in bed, enjoying being close to Derek like this

He was just about to drift off to sleep again when he suddenly heard another noise from outside, successfully startling him from his peacefull almost-sleep

He sat up slowly, hesitating for a few moments, body tense, and glanced down at Derek

The wolf was still peacefully sleeping, clearly not bothered by whatever Stiles may have heard

The witch inhaled, heart beating a little bit faster as he looked around the room

His Alpha instincts had him on high alert, but maybe he was just dreaming...

After all, Derek was still asleep, and werewolves had far better hearing than witches, so maybe....

He was about to lay down again when he noticed Barbie- who was sleeping at the foot of the bed like a dog (again)- suddenly lift he head, her ears twitching as she stared up at the bedroom window

"You too huh?" he said quietly

If the deer had heard something too, then he should probably atleast check it out

There was no harm in being cautious right?

Slowly, he slipped out of bed, and- because ofcourse he couldn't do that without waking Derek- the moment he did, the Omega blinked his eyes open, slowly sitting up and stiffling a yawn

"Stiles? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just go back to sleep,"

"Where are you going?"

"Just ... to go check outside, it's really no-"

"Don't say it's nothing," Derek warned with a small frown

Alright... alright he had a point...

"I'm just going to go check on a noise I heard outside, ok? That's all, I promise,"

The werewolf gave a small nod, easily rolling out of bed as well

"I'm going too,"

"Derek-"

"Don't argue, this is my home, these are my creatures, if you think something is wrong I'm going to go find out what it is,"

Ofcourse....

It was stupid of him to think that he could actually convince Derek to just let him do this alone

"Alright, but stay behind me,"

The look of disbeleif and the snort that followed after told Stiles _exactly_ how much that peice of advice was going to be used

Hint: It wasn't much

 

~+~

 

Even with Derek brushing off Stiles' warning beforehand, the two were stuck pretty close together as they walked, with Stiles barely a few inches in front of the Omega, one arm held out protectively in front of him

A dim light was shinning in Stiles' free palm, and the two of them were being as quiet as they possibly could as they rounded the corner

Surely enough, just like earlier that day, they managed to have excellent timing

There was a man spotted just up ahead, shifting the glass off of the window in front of him

"That's the nursery where the chicks are..." Derek snarled lowly

Stiles didn't even get a chance to say anything or try to stop him, before anything could be said or done, Derek let out a snarl and immediately shifted, running forward as clothes went flying and falling to the ground around him, the wolf racing up ahead to give chase to the mysterious man about to climb through the window

The man, who had seen Derek and jumped down to sprint into a run seconds earlier, was faster than any human- faster than any witch too

Stiles wasn't sure what the guy was, but it was abundantly clear that Stiles was going to have to give himself a boost if he wanted to catch up

With a frustrated curse, he glanced around for anything he could use to help him get to Derek and whoever he was chasing faster than his nearly human speed would allow

Of all times not to have some kind of broom or something....

He did, however, have access to the woods not far from here...

He managed to get maybe five feet towards the woods before the sound of a scream peirced his ears, heart sinking anxiously as he decided to stop looking for a trick that could get him there faster, booking it forward as quickly as he possibly could

He could see Derek in the distance, shifting from his wolf form back to his human shape and snarling down at the crumpled up body on the ground in front of him

Stiles was panting, gulping down air and feeling his legs wobble, sweat pouring down his body as he forced himself to move faster, finally stumbling up towards the two and glancing down at the stranger on the ground

Derek had certainly done a number on him, a huge chunk of flesh was missing from his leg from where Derek's teeth had been and there were claw marks down his back and even what looked to be a dislocated shoulder

The guy was a wreck alright.....

"Our dragon theif," the werewolf snarled in anger

"I can smell dragon chicks all over him, this is definitely the one,"

Breifly, Stiles wondered what to make of the Jackson Whittemore incident now, but that was another issue for another time most likely, and nothing to be spending his somewhat limited thoughts on at the moment

"You know," he panted quietly, licking his lips and trying to keep himself steady as he turned his gaze up towards the Omega beside him

"As cool as.... as your bird portals are..... now, ... now would be ... an EXCELLENT... time to have.... to have a phone....."

Derek didn't seem to care, but the groaning guy on the ground atleast appeared to be in agreement

It was something of a win

 

~+~

 

"There were two dragon theives?"

"Well... sort of yes, sort of no," Lydia said slowly, glancing over her shoulder in detest at the stranger- now identified as Theo Raeken- was handcuffed and put in the car by Allison

"Theo is the one who's been stealing chicks to sell on the black market, as pets, as pelts... whatever he can get for them and however he can get it, Jackson has been trying to save them by stealing them and keeping them in his own house, we found about a quarter of the missing chicks in his home with his boyfreind, who has been insisting all night that they're the good guys,"

"Well, I guess they aren't entirely wrong," Stiles mused a bit bitterly, though he didn't care for the idea of complimenting the Jackson guy, just on principal

"They still shouldn't have taken the dragons without their proper caretaker's permission though.... we're handling it," she said with a small shrug

"I'm just glad you two caught him before your dragons were taken as well,"

"Yeah, believe me, so are we," Stiles confirmed with a nod

"It's all thanks to Stiles, somehow he heard the guy before I did and woke up, if it hadn't been for him.... I can't even think about what would have happened to my chicks," Derek said softly, a peacefull, relieved smile on his face as he spoke

"You give me way too much credit," Stiles muttered under his breath

"Well," Lydia said with a slight clear of her throat

"I guess it's a good thing that you decided to stay behind here and accept the 'ride' from Derek after all, if you had come back sooner ... well, best not to think about it,"

"See? I TOLD you you were overreacting," Stiles snorted

Even though he understood why she had been now, it still kind of got under his skin for some reason he couldn't really explain

"Anyway, we'll keep in touch, if anything else develops we'll let you know as soon as we can," Lydia added a second later, probably not happy with being out there in the middle of the night wile Allison waited with a suspect in the back of the squad car

(That alone was probably irritating her, it was a known fact that Lydia loved the cars she got to drive working for the FBI and hated squad cars)

"Oh and... one last thing," she said suddenly, turning on her heel and focusing her attention back on Derek

"Allison wanted me to give you a message for her, she _is_ sincerely sorry about earlier, she hopes there isn't any more bad blood between the two of you,"

Stiles glanced up at Derek, watching in surprise as he softened and gave a slow nod

"I don't want any more bad blood either... I think it's time for all of that to end so... consider this accepting her apology,"

Lydia gave a slight lift of her lips, and that was all that was needed to communicate that she would pass on the message as she stepped off of the porch and made her way back to the car

"I can't wait until this town gets a new sheriff," she muttered under her breath as she walked

The two of them stood in silence for a moment, watching the car drive away, before finally heading back inside

Stiles shut the door behind them, locking up as Derek reached down and picked up the little fawn who had been standing in the doorway with them

"I don't know about you, but I don't think I can sleep right now," the werewolf said with a quiet sigh

"I can't either, so I guess there's only one thing we can do in this situation,"

Derek paused, eyebrows raised curiously as he glanced at the Alpha over his shoulder

"Oh? And what would that be?"

Stiles grinned, eyes lighting up as he wrapped an arm around the other man's waist, hugging him a little bit closer as they walked

"Well, let's start with a little pitstop at the library and go from there,"

 

~+~

 

"Have you ever thought about getting a dog?"

"A dog? Actually I have, but it would really require alot of looking for the perfect one since alot of dogs really wouldn't get along with the creatures I have here, why?"

"Mm, just curious, I've always wanted a dog myself, personally, but haven't gotten one yet because of my dad, you know? I still live at home because, go figure, the candy business isn't as enormously lucrative as you would think, and anyway, he doesn't have a problem with dogs or anything but he just doesn't want one in the house and to be around for the inevitable training and stuff,"

"Easy enough to understand, we've talked about getting one recently, maybe after my sisters and cousin get back we'll start looking," Derek said with a small shrug, twirling the lollipop in his mouth and flipping the page in the book he was skimming through

"Mm! Here it is, I told you," he said with a slight smirk, pushing the book towards Stiles and pointing down at the page

"Chimeras that don't take human form- and they _can_ be born naturally, they're just rare,"

Stiles glanced down at the book, eyes locking onto the picture of a little animal that was clearly meshed together parts of other animals and was... kind of cute...

"Nope, I don't believe it, I refuse to call that cute little thing a chimera,"

"What is it with you and chimeras?" Derek asked with a teasing smirk, tossing the lollipop stick in the trash and taking a sip of his hot chocolate

So what if it was summer?

Hot chocolate was always good, no matter what time of year it was

"A long story," Stiles shrugged back simply, glancing to his side for a moment and feeling a small smile grace his lips as he watched the baby dragons sleep

Derek hadn't been able to settle himself without going to check on them and... well, now here they were in the nursery, having a weird little pajama party as they watched the baby dragons sleep

It was sort of the most amazing thing he had ever done

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me your's," Derek offered after a moment, his voice having gone softer, quieter, a sense of nervousness and hesitation woven deep within it

It sounded like a childish request but....

Stiles had a feeling that it was anything but

Derek needed to get this off of his chest, this... thing with the Argents, whatever it was

It was clear that he hadn't told anyone about it in ages, if ever, and seeing Allison had dredged up and picked apart whatever wounds had begun to scar over from the incident, even if he vowed that they were in the past now and he didn't want any more bad blood between them, that he may have judged too quickly earlier when he said it was personal that she wanted to check the chicks

He needed to talk about it, and Stiles would rather die than deny him the chance to get some releif

"When I was a teenager I had a bad run-in with a chimera, this ... I don't even know what he was to be honest, a wendigo and something else maybe? I'm not sure... anyway, he was a real peice of work, tried to go after my dad and when that didn't work he came after me, he ... actually kind of put a dent in my relationships for a wile, after the attack, I fought him off and I got out of it ok and everything but it was just one of those _things_ that you don't want to talk about and to make a long story short I still have a hard time even thinking about chimeras without thinking about that idiot, so... there ya' have it, my bad association with chimeras,"

"I'm sorry that you went through that," Derek said with a deep, sympathetic frown

The look on his face was beyond sincere, it was almost as if Derek was actually feeling Stiles' pain as he spoke

Stiles understood empathy but that....

He was kind of blown away by that

"Thanks, I mean... it's in the past now you know? What's done is done... now, I told you my nightmare fuel, what about your's?"

Derek took a deep breath, his gaze on the floor as he spoke

"When I was a teenager.... the Argents burned down our house, murdering everyone inside it, the only ones who weren't there are myself, my sisters, and my cousin, we were at a school basketball game, we went home to ashes and ruins... actually we... we didn't even really go home to it, not for a little wile, they told us wile we were at the game and we went straight to the hospital after ... to make all of this even worse, I'm ... it was my ... a woman that I had been getting very _close_ to, Kate Argent, she's the one who got the information from me and ultimately burned down the house, that fire... that fire took away nearly everything... Kate had been long since taken care of but it's still.... it's still an open wound,"

Understandably so

And Stiles thought his issue with chimeras was bad...

He didn't know what to say, he didn't think there was anything TO say, so he simply moved away from where he had been laying on the floor, wrapped his arms around the werewolf, and hugged him as deeply and tightly as he could, and hoped that would be enough to portray the message he wanted to give

And given the way Derek curled into it, absorbing every last drop of affection and gently squeezing Stiles' hand, he would be willing to say that the Omega got the message

After a good few minutes like that, Barbie apparently had had enough and butted her way between them, nuzzling up against Derek for attention

"Hey!!" Stiles snorted in offense, but really, he was just happy to hear the slight laugh of amusement fall from Derek's lips

He had made... some kind of progress

It'd be more than premature to venture out and say Derek had let anything go but...

Progress

Progress was the important thing

"Mm, you know, the sun is getting ready to come up," Stiles mused after another moment, glancing up at the lightened sky that was clearly coming in through the window

It wasn't up yet, and there was still enough darkness to easily be called night, but it was getting there

"Mmm.... yeah," Derek mused with a slight yawn

Stiles had noticed him getting tired ages ago but he wasn't prepared to say anything, not until Derek either indicated that he wanted to go to bed, or the sun started to come up

Looks like they were both happening at around the same time

"Come on," Stiles insisted, getting off of the floor where he had been laying and closing his book, taking a few steps towards the Omega and offering him his hand

"I think it's about time you get to bed, don't you?"

Derek snorted, clearly not in full agreement with him, and yet...

And yet he reached up and took Stiles' hand anyway, a slight blush on his cheeks as he climbed to his feet

"You know, it's pretty pointless of you to go all the way to the guest room at this point," Derek mused after a quick beat, licking his lips

"You should just stay with me, we're both tired, there's no point in... in you going all the way to the other end of the house,"

Actually, the guest room wasn't _all_ the way at the other end of the house, as a matter of fact, it was only a few doors down, but Stiles didn't see any reason to bring that up

"I am in complete agreement," he promised, looping their fingers together

"C'mon, let's go to bed,"

 

~+~

 

Stiles couldn't remember the last time he had slept so late, but to be fair, he couldn't remember the last time he had slept that _well_ either

He woke up feeling revived and rejuvenated, feeling at peace and content

There was nothing that stressed him out or caused him pain, nothing that really had him on edge

He felt _good_.... he felt _right_ , like everything was the way it was supposed to be

Wich was an incredibly odd feeling to have about waking up next to someone he still barely knew, but he felt it

He just spent the longest time laying on his side and staring at Derek's face as he slept, inhaling his scent, drinking him in....

It was the weirdest thing and he knew within reason that it wasn't really normal but he just... couldn't help it

Staring at Derek like this made his heart flutter, it made everything feel good and right and he could get lost in this moment...

...

Sort of like how Scott and Kira had gotten lost in the moment time after time after freaking time once they had met....

The realization practically slammed into Stiles like a train and he didn't really know what to do with it at the moment

How did someone even go about this?

Wake Derek up and go "Oh hey, so you're my mate, what do we do now?"

Wait until Derek woke up on his own- whenever the hell that would be- and say "So about this mating thing, I have a fun idea...."

He had no idea where to go from here, since, typically, this wasn't really how mating went

Not that he had ever mated with anyone before, obviously, but it just wasn't anything like what he had always heard from people who HAD found their mates

Unfortunately- or fortunately depending on how you look at it- Stiles really didn't have time to think it over much longer

The thing about not going to bed until around sunrise was that you usually slept through the morning and didn't wake up until afternoon

So by the time Stiles had woken up, "Afternoon" had already hit, and not long after that, the sound of the door opening downstairs and several different kinds of chatter and chirping and whatever hell else kind of noises the creatures made practically exploded through the house, easily waking Derek up

"Laura's home," he mumbled, still groggy and probably half asleep as he stumbled over Stiles in a rush to go downstairs and greet his sister

It looked like the mating thing would have to be put on the back burner then, there were other things that needed to be tended to first

 

~+~

 

"That's quite some story you have there,"

Stiles hadn't known what to expect from Laura Hale, and if he was being completely honest, he still wasn't all that sure of what to make of her

But he liked her, he knew that much right away

"I'm not surprised though, Derek has quite a protective streak, especially when the little ones are involved,"

"Yeah, I noticed that," Stiles snorted, stealing a glance at the Omega as he glanced down and picked at the pancakes that his sister had made

They had both tried to dissuade her from coming home from a nearly week long trip, dropping her bags, and immediately making breakfast, but Laura wouldn't have it, she insisted on doing it

Though the matter of why was a different story, Stiles didn't know and if Derek had any clue he wasn't breathing a word of it to the witch

"It isn't just them though, he's like that with anyone he cares about, Malia and Cora are too young to remember much of Beacon Hills but... it's a much different place than it is here and Derek was quite tough back then, I remember one time in particular, there was this guy at our highschool who was harassing me, and before I could even draw back a punch, Derek was practically ripping him to shreds! I've never seen an Alpha so afraid of an Omega before in my LIFE, it was priceless!!"

"Too bad the principal didn't share your sentiment," Derek noted with a teasing smirk

"Yeah, well, he was an old wind bag anyway," Laura said with a shrug, turning away from the sink and glancing at Stiles

"So, all of this happened because you missed your train huh? That takes some serious kind of luck to turn something so miserable into something so positive,"

Well, she wasn't wrong

"I've always had weird luck like that," Stiles shrugged back, taking a bite of his waffle

Maybe not like this EXACTLY but weird luck all the same

"I bet you weren't expecting your trip to end up like this huh?"

"Nope, I really didn't know what I was expecting to be honest, everytime I come to this place it's something different,"

Not that Stiles had been to the valley a ton of times before or anything but it was enough to feel like he had had a few experiences

"You didn't know what to expect? But you said you were here on the mate hunting thingie right? Then am I to take it you didn't have any luck?"

Well this was about to get awkward

He wasn't really sure if discussing this for the first time in front of Derek's sister was really the best idea but if he lied- or even just told some kind of half-truth- he was sure that the werewolves would be able to sense it and that would just make the situation even worse....

"Honestly? I... don't really know, I mean I hadn't but then recently ... things kinda changed a little bit,"

Derek had some sort of... _look_ on his face, like a mix of surprised and resigned and a little bit hurt or disappointed...

Well, that couldn't _possibly_ be good

"It's Lydia, isn't it?" he asked softly, now having abandoned his pancakes for the second time

"The FBI agent from last night who you know, her name is Lydia, isn't it?"

Lydia?

Derek thought he was talking about Lydia?

"What? No!! I mean... yes, yes her name is Lydia but she isn't who I'm talking about,"

"Allison...?" Derek asked with slight concern

 _Dear God_ why was this happening...?

"No! Not Lydia, not Allison, it's.... you, ok? I think.... I don't know, maybe I'm just going cray- I'm PROBABLY going crazy- but ... but I just have this weird.... PULL to you and I can't explain it but it's there so ... I don't know what else it would be,"

Thanks words, for failing him now when he needed you the most

"That would explain alot," Laura mused slowly

"I mean, the overprotectiveness on both your parts is a little concerning otherwise, Stiles being more hyper-alert and Derek being more sedate and less alert than usual, the way Stiles keeps referring to the little ones as _'our's_... just to name a few things that I've observed in the short time I've been here,"

Laura had a point too, now that he thought about it, he had been noticing some of those odd behaviors in himself for a couple of days now but just kept passing them off as other things

This though....

This would explain practically all of it, even on Derek's part

He had wondered why Derek's senses had been slower than his own, despite a werewolf's senses being all around better than a witch's, and why he had been so quick to accept Stiles as being in the house- around what were essentially his babies- without much studying or probing of him at all

If he was feeling the same pull, if he was as comfortable with Stiles as Stiles was with him, then it made sense for him to be naturally less vigilant

Omegas had a tendency to relax a little more and not be as hyper-vigilant when they had their mates around, it was just instinct

Except, ofcourse, when their children were involved or their mate might be in danger, either of those scenarios were pretty much no-holds-bar

And Derek _definitely_ considered his creatures to be like his children

"What do you think Derek?"

After all, none of this really mattered if Derek didn't have the slightest inclination to think of Stiles that way

Stiles watched with a nervous breath as the wolf gave a small smile, turning his attention away from Laura and towards the witch instead

"Honestly... I was afraid I was imagining it,"

"DEFINITELY not imagining it," Stiles said with a relieved grin

There was only one thing to do now: Actually test it out

Stiles found himself hoping with every ounce of his being that the results would be positive

Now that he was actually thinking about having Derek as his mate, and everything that entailed, he wanted it

He wanted it so much more than he could ever possibly put into words and he wanted it so much more than anything he had ever wanted before...

And the thought of Derek NOT being his mate, of all of this being essentially moot... it broke his heart

It was crazy what the mating connection- even just thinking of one- was capable of causing

And Stiles just hoped that this one was real, and not his mind and desperation for a mate playing tricks on him

 

~+~

 

The mate confirmation process was actually incredibly simple

Just sprinkle a little bit of Pixie Dust on the potential couple wile they touch in some way- usually holding hands, just for simplicity's sake- and if it glows, it's a positive match

If it doesn't, then the test is negative, meaning that the couple involved aren't true mates

Ofcourse it's completely possible to have a relationship with someone other than your true mate, some people go their entire lives without ever even meeting this mysterious mate of their's for one reason or another

But it was admittedly a risky thing to do, supposedly if you were to ever find your true mate you would want to have a relationship with them instead

That was really just parlor talk ofcourse, no one had ever really sat down and had a proper talk to him about the ins and outs of unconventional mating, it was one of those things parents and other adult figures never thought they needed to talk to kids about

"Ok, just like that.... that's good, now close your eyes and your mouths, the last thing we need is you two swallowing Pixie Dust,"

With a slight grin, the Alpha and Omega did as they were told, unconsciously squeezing eachother's hands as they waited anxiously for the telltale sensation of Pixie Dust being sprinkled over them

It was an odd type of sensation, the physical feeling was barely there, given how light weight and almost non-existant it was to the touch

But there was a different kind of sensation that came from touching Pixie Dust

A more... spiritual sensation, something warm and gentle, something soothing, Stiles didn't know exactly how to put it into words, but he knew it when he felt it

And when he felt it, he could swear a chill went down his spine

"Well would you look at that..."

He knew he wasn't supposed to open his eyes, but he had never been much for obeying rules and he was just too excited and anxious to wait any longer

So he allowed his eyes to open, glancing down and feeling his excitement reach a peak when he took note of all of the beautifull, glowing Pixie Dust alight against their bodies, and he decided he couldn't wait any longer for something else either

Just as Derek was opening his eyes and starting to observe the beautifull scenery himself, Stiles leaned in closer, gently cupping his face and stroking his thumb against his cheek before leaning in a little bit closer and carefully brushing their lips together

The kiss started out so sweet and chaste and innocent at first that it could barely even be called a kiss to begin with, more like a light sweep of the lips

But before they so much as broke for air, it developed a little bit further, lips lingering on lips and touches lingering against touches

Neither of them wanted to pull away from eachother for even a few seconds, the kiss was just .... magical

It felt too good, not in the electrifying, sparking, "I must have you now because my clothes are practically falling off" sort of way that alot of people experienced when they kissed their mate's lips for the first time, but ... peacefull

It was more of a "Finally everything is right in the world and I don't want this moment to end" sort of a desperation, a familiarity like he was finally catching up with an old freind that he had had since the beginning of time and hadn't seen for many years

Everything about it was strange, but it was beautifull that way, and he loved it all the same

 

~+~

 

"Are you ready to go?"

"Almost, just let me say goodbye to Barbie one last time,"

Stiles would have found this thing incredibly irritating if it wasn't so incredibly cute

"C'mon Derek, you're barely going away for a full day, both your sisters and your cousin are here, they'll all be FINE,"

"I know... I know, I just want to make sure they know that I'm not abandoning them,"

And really, how could Stiles fault him for that?

"I promise, I'll be back in the morning, be good," Derek ordered gently, leaning down to press a soft kiss to the baby hippogriff's head

The little creature didn't seem very happy, if the upset squeal it released was anything to go by, but there was nothing they could do

Stiles wanted Derek to meet his father already instead of waiting the month it would take for the sheriff to pack up and come to Lily Valley

As it turned out, the living situation was going to work out pretty well after all

Once Stiles' father had heard of the vacant sheriff position he stated to inquire about it and before long the plan had been set: He would transfer to Lily Valley and Deputy Parrish- who had come to pick up Lydia the week before- would become the new sheriff of Beacon Hills

It actually all worked pretty smoothly, and because Stiles' business was online only (atleast for now) it would have absolutely no problem moving to Lily Valley either

All of the peices were fitting into place and now, they just needed the last one

They just needed to go and visit Beacon Hills so that Derek could meet his to-be-father-in-law and get introduced to Stiles' freinds, since Stiles had already been introduced to pretty much everyone in Lily Valley at this point- more than once at that

Sure eventually they'd have to make the move official, go back to Beacon Hills and get Stiles' things- more than just some extra clothes and a few more books- but that could be dealt with later on

"Theeeeere you are, I promise the critters aren't going anywhere, it's just for a day," Stiles smirked, gently pulling Derek in closer by the shirt and giving him a soft, affectionate kiss

"I don't know what your hurry is," he noted with a soft hum, gently nuzzling into the Alpha's throat

"The train doesn't leave for another two hours, we can afford to linger a little,"

"Ahhh but we aren't taking the train," Stiles smirked

Derek pulled back, a puzzled look on his face as he tilted his head and watched Stiles reach into his backpack and pull out a key-chain sized broom

"What are we going to do with that?"

The mischevious look in his mate's eyes really should have answered that question for him

All Stiles had to do was toss the broom up into the air, and once it had left his grasp, it suddenly spun around and enlarged, growing bigger and bigger until it was easily the size of a fairly large- and definitely full sized- broom

"Hop on," Stiles instructed with a smirk, throwing one leg over the front of the broomstick and gripping on with both hands

"I cannot BELIEVE I'm doing this," Derek said with a sigh, but his voice was fond and affectionate, despite the mild terror that the thought of _flying on a freaking broom_ gave him

It wasn't that Derek was afraid of heights

...

Ok, he was a little bit afraid of heights, but that wasn't the point, the point was that the thought of flying on a broom had always been one of those things that unnerved him to no end

There just seemed to be so many things inherently WRONG with the idea, so many things that could GO wrong

Part of him actually couldn't believe that people were still using broom travel as a legitimate mode of transportation....

It was ok though, really

He only had a slight wave of nervousness as he climbed onto the broom, wrapping his arms around Stiles' waist and hugging him tightly, letting his head rest gently against the Alpha's back and inhaling with... something akin to excitement as the broom began to rise higher and higher, Derek's grip tightening more and more with each levitation

The tighter he held onto Stiles, the less nervous he was

He had no reason to be nervous, after all

He knew that he was safe with Stiles, in every sense of the word and in every possible way

Stiles would never let anything happen to him, and Derek would never let anything happen to him either

They were mates, after all, and that's what mates are for


End file.
